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Longways slice (julienne) several kinds of vegetables. Fill one 2-litre container (e.g. an ice-cream tub) with veggies for approximately every 6 or 7 people you are catering for.Open a tin of pineapples (smaller tin for 6 people, larger tin if more people)Heat the oil on a very hot stove. Use a wok or large frying pan.Fry the carrots. Stir fairly constantly with a wooden spoon.Add the other veggies when the carrots are slightly cooked. Keep the temperature high.Add the pineapple and the juice. Add a lot of soya sauce. Add coconut milk if you are using it.Add generous sprinklings of ground ginger. Taste, and add more ginger or soya sauce if necessary. Add a dash of masala if you want. Add salt and pepper.Turn the heat down slightly if necessary. Stir the veggies now and then so they don't burn. Cook for about 15 minutes.Add chopped spinach or lettuce right at the end - it cooks down a lot and very quickly.For protein, add a tin of chickpeas or kidney beans. Or chop up tofu into cubes. Add the beans or tofu towards the end of the cooking.Mix 3 or 4 teaspoons of maizena into half a cup of milk or water, and add it to the dish towards the end of cooking. This thickens the sauce. Add more if necessary.

Arrowroot, if substituted exactly for cornstarch, will work nicely to thicken clear sauces, and it seems, in my experience to work fine for sweets. I'll use it in pies and fruit sauces. For a white sauce, like gravy or casseroles, I use rice flour. It's gritty if you use too much. If you use a smaller amount, and just cook it down some, it'll eventually thicken up.

ISTJ, BTD since 5/05. Battling chronic Lyme disease since ~1985.

"Everything is permissible for me, but not everything is beneficial..." I Corinthians 6:12